https://github.com/nmasse-itix/bearnotes
A tool to migrate notes from Bear to Zettlr
https://github.com/nmasse-itix/bearnotes
bear zettlr
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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A tool to migrate notes from Bear to Zettlr
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/nmasse-itix/bearnotes
- Owner: nmasse-itix
- License: mit
- Created: 2020-10-25T16:53:14.000Z (over 4 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2021-11-25T15:44:30.000Z (over 3 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-02-12T11:16:18.466Z (4 months ago)
- Topics: bear, zettlr
- Language: Go
- Homepage:
- Size: 31.3 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# Migrate your notes from Bear to Zettlr!
## Background
I recently switch from Bear to Zettlr to manage my notes.
However, I was sad to discover that Bear exports notes in a non-standard way:
- File attachments are HTML links that don't even point to the correct file
- All notes are stored in the same directory, regardless of your tag hierarchy
- The tag format used by Bear (#foo/bar) is incompatible with Zettlr format (#bar)
- Bonus: some file attachment were missing...
So, I decided to write this tool in order to save my hundreds of notes!
## Usage
First, export all your notes from Bear.
* Go to **Notes**
* Hit **Cmd+A** to select all your notes
* Go to **File** > **Export Notes...**
* Select **Markdown** and check **Export attachments**
* Select a directory to store your exported notes
* Click **Export notes**
Then, install **git** and **go**.
```sh
brew install git golang
```
Checkout this repository.
```sh
git clone https://github.com/nmasse-itix/bearnotes.git
cd bearnotes/cli
```
Start a discovery of your notes.
```sh
go run main.go discover --from /path/to/bear-notes --tag-file /tmp/tags.yaml
```
If everything goes well, it should display a count of your exported notes
along with the discovered tag list.
You can review the generated tag configuration file.
```sh
open /tmp/tags.yaml
```
Finally, launch the proper migration phase.
```sh
go run main.go migrate --from /path/to/bear-notes --to /path/to/zettlr-notes --tag-file /tmp/tags.yaml
```
Review the migrated notes.
If you want to change the default folder hierarchy, read the next section.
## Configuration
You can configure how the migration tool stores your notes, in which folder and even rewrite the tags to match Zettlr's format.
The default configuration for a tag is:
```yaml
foo/bar:
ignore: false
handling_strategy: same-folder
target_directory: foo/bar
target_tag_name: bar
```
It defines that any note having this tag will go to the **foo/bar** directory.
The **#foo/bar** tag will be rewritten as **#bar**.
All the notes having the **#foo/bar** tag, will be stored in the same directory, along with their embedded images and file attachments.
If you think the migration tool wrongly identified a tag, you can switch the **ignore** option to **true**.
```yaml
foo/bar:
ignore: true
```
If you want to rewrite the **#foo/bar** tag as **#foo-bar**, you can change the **target_tag_name**.
```yaml
foo/bar:
ignore: false
handling_strategy: same-folder
target_directory: foo/bar
target_tag_name: foo-bar
```
Note: If you want to remove the tag from the migrated note, use `target_tag_name: ""`.
The `target_directory` option is straightforward: it defines where to store the notes having this tag.
The `handling_strategy` option specifies how notes will be saved on the filesystem
- **same-folder**: all notes having this tag are stored in the **target_directory** along with their embedded images and file attachments.
- **one-note-per-folder**: each note will get a sub-folder in the **target_directory**
Note: given that a document can have multiple tags, it is perfectly valid for a tag to specify no target directory or no handling strategy if you know that another tag will provide them.
If by any chance, for a note the tool cannot determine a target directory or an handling strategy, the note will be stored in the root of the target directory.
And if a note receives different configurations by two different tags, the first one wins (by order of tag appearance in the document).
## Filename encoding Between Mac and Linux
If you took your exported notes from a Mac and migrated them on a Linux box, you might encounter some filename encoding issue.
Hopefully, `convmv` can fix filenames for you!
```sh
sudo dnf install convmv
convmv -f utf-8 -t utf-8 --nfc -r --notest /path/to/bear-notes
```
## License
MIT